ABC Eight former contestants of "The Bachelor" during the "Women Tell All" special.
Heather Martin’s time on The Bachelor was exceedingly brief, but she still made quite an impact. So it’s not that surprising that she’d be invited to the “Women Tell All” special to talk about her stint on the show. What’s puzzling is why the show would bring her to the show only to cut her out completely.
At no point during the “Women Tell All” was Martin addressed by host and moderator Chris Harrison. Cameras also seemed to do their best to avoid showing her sitting on the edge of the stage just to the left of Kit Keenan. But eagle-eyed fans still managed to spot Martin and her long blonde hair during the few overhead shots of the stage.
They really made Heather quarantine for no reason AGAIN #TheBachelor #TheBachelorABC
As pointed out by the tweet, Martin’s appearance at the “Women Tell All” wasn’t exactly spontaneous. Due to pandemic restrictions, women quarantined before the filming of the special.
So fans were left wondering why on Earth the show invited her to the “Women Tell All” in the first place if she was just going to be left on the cutting room floor.
Chris Harrison Has Harshly Criticized Heather Martin
If Harrison is to be believed, Martin didn’t make a great impression with the ABC executives in the lead up to her appearance on this season of The Bachelor. He claimed she was told multiple times not to show up and did so anyway. He also blamed former lead of The Bachelorette, Hannah Brown, for “concocting” the story from the sideline.
“When they reached out, we said ‘no. No we’re not going to put you on the show,’” Harrison told Rachel Lindsay in an interview on Extra. “They kept fighting for this, fighting for this, we kept saying no. She said ‘I want to come out there.’ One of our executive producers says, ‘Heather, do not come to Nemacolin. You’re not going to be on the show.’ Heather pulls up in a minivan.”
Harrison said all of that led to producers “setting [Martin] up for failure … somewhat on purpose.”
Unsurprisingly, her attempt to join the show just as Matt James was cutting his number of contestants to 10 failed. But many have laughed off Harrison’s assertion that Martin showed up completely by surprise. A former Bachelorette contestant and one of Martin’s friends, Dylan Barbour, tweeted that the show “screwed Heather over.”
Martin quarantining for the “Women Tell All” only to get edited out may provide more fuel for that fire.
The ‘Women Tell All’ Also Revealed 2 Former Bachelorettes Were Edited Out
The producers of The Bachelor didn’t do themselves too many favors with the “Women Tell All,” which showed light-hearted and fun clips from several dates that were omitted from the show entirely.
Also revealed to have been cut from the show was an appearance made by former leads of The Bachelorette, JoJo Fletcher and Tayshia Adams. It appears as though the two women came to have a meal with James and talk with him about his journey on the show, but those appearances were relegated to moments on the highlight reel.
With so much screen time given to Sarah Trott and Victoria Larson in season 25, the “Women Tell All” gave a glimpse at what the show could’ve been if the priorities of producers were different.
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‘Bachelor’ Contestant Mysteriously Scrubbed From ‘Women Tell All’